I agree with hvert. Perfectionism is a state of mind that undermines all aspects of our lives - school, careers, relationships, etc. It also is something we use to hide behind to keep from going forward.

Perfectionism also made grad school a struggle for me, so much so that right after graduation I developed some health problems I don't think I would have had otherwise. Yet, I saw classmates go through grad school putting forth much less effort than I did and they ended up with the same piece of paper I have.

I am now in my late 50's. What I am learning is that if you don't ease up on the perfectionism when you are younger, you will be forced to when you are older because you don't have the time and energy to put those kind of demands on yourself and you no longer see the logic in it!